Kill Or Be Killed
by PBailey
Summary: This story follows Toby's life in a world infested by aliens. Rated M for scary moments, swear words, and possibly some smut.
1. Chapter One

"They didn't come until I was ten.

The monsters.

My mother called them "Haunts".

To my father, they were "Death".

The military increased in size every day to fight the Death. They pulled my father into it, the war. I never saw him again. My mother, me, and my older brother fled to safety in the deep south.

But safety never lasts long out here. Not with the monsters. Safe is one thing that this world is not.

And it never will be.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Toby!! Get the gun!!" My mother yelled from the kitchen. "Quickly!!"

With haste, I got up from my resting position on the couch and ran down to the cellar, grabbed a fully loaded machine gun and ran back up to my mother, handing the weapon to her.

She quickly snatched the gun from my hands and broke the kitchen window with its tip, warning, "Cover your ears!"

My hands quickly met with the sides of my face as she let the gun rip. I closed my eyes and heard the harsh explosion.

"Toby, you can uncover your ears and open your eyes." My mother smiled as I did what I was told. "It's dead now."

I looked out of the broken window. Purple slime was everywhere around the creature. This happened every time one died. It would explode. It was their blood that was the worst. If you were too close when it exploded, and the blood touched your skin… you would become one of them.

One of the Death.

I looked at mother. "Do you ever think about him?"

Her eyes met mine. "Yes. Often." She frowned. "I miss him too Toby."

I frowned. "It isn't about missing him." I looked out of the window again. "We had to kill him mom. Our own. We killed our own."

She screamed at me. "He wasn't one of us anymore!!" She ran outside, the machine gun swinging on her shoulder.

His name was Caleb, my older brother. He got infected by the Death Blood. We had to kill him when he came after us. Mother made me close my eyes so tightly I thought I might pass out. When I opened them, mother was on her knees crying, the gun still tightly held in her grasp.

I had gotten used to it now. The sound of guns, and the explosions that came soon after. Used to the smell of rotting flesh days after the monsters had perished around our home. The sound of mother crying at night because she missed dad or Caleb, and the way it used to be.

Used to the nightmares. Used to the Death and the way they looked.

They were terrifying at first. With their many legs and eyeless faces. They were dark purple, and hairy. I cried when I first saw one. But that was when I was younger. I was 18 now and knew full well how to shoot a gun. I had shot many of the Death, and helped my mother burn them lots of times. But the panic inside of me when one first comes into view… It's unlike any other. My mother tells me that it is normal to feel this way when seeing them. When killing them. She says she feels it too. The blood rushing to her face, and the sickness afterwards.

My mother tells me that it is normal.


	2. Chapter Two

I snapped out of my flashbacks and mindless thoughts, back to the present world. Back to reality. I looked back out the kitchen window. The Deaths legs were still twitching, and half of its body hadn't exploded.

"Strange…" I wanted to go see why half of it was still intact, but I knew it might still be able to sting me. And I wouldn't want that to happen. So, I quickly grabbed another machine gun from the cellar, and entered the outside.

Approaching the creature cautiously, I held the gun up to shoot in case it wasn't fully dead.

"Huh…" I squinted through my glasses to look at the Deaths middle. "What…?" It looked like there was a metal sphere replacing the middle of the creature.

I wondered if this was the way it had always been. I tried to remember what they'd looked like before.

"No. They never had this…" I didn't even know what to call it. The metal base hadn't been destroyed, and it looked as though there was a hatch with no handle to open it. "This is just weird." I would've gone closer, but I knew I'd risk getting stung, which wouldn't be good.

So, I decided to wait for mother and went back inside. She returned a few hours later, her face still red and tear-streaked.

"Hey mom." I greeted her at the doorway, and she softly brushed past me. "I'm really sorry about earlier but there's something I think you should see."

"You know Toby…" My mother opened the fridge. "I've raised you in this time of horror."

She shook her head as she grabbed a few greens from the fridge. "And I think I've done a very good job in spite of being alone."

I walked up to her. "You did mom. You did. The best job in the world. But there's a-"

"Also, I believe you're old enough to realize that I'm not always going to be here for you." She took a deep breath. "I think you should prepare yourself for my death Toby."

"What?" I almost laughed. "Mom, you're far from dying. You're still super young, only 47! You have like… at least 50 more years!!"

"I don't want to live anymore Toby." She shut the fridge. "It's too much. There's too much to be scared of. Nothing is ever going to be the same." She rubbed her shoulder.

"And I hope you feel the same way about it."

I shook my head, not believing what I was hearing. My own mother had gone insane. "Mom! No way! We can't leave now! There're so many things we can do… So many creatures we can destroy. And if we destroy enough, maybe they'll just go away!"

She shook her head. "Toby, be realistic. They're here to stay. To take over." She walked to me and shook me by my shoulders. "It's our time to die now. It's the best thing for both of us."

I backed away from her, not believing the lies coming from my own mother's mouth. "No mom. No. I'm not going to just kill myself like that!" I shook my head harder, thinking maybe if I shook it hard enough, all the things my mother said would go away. "I'm not doing that. I can't give up!"

"Fine Toby." She smiled softly. "But I _am_. Tomorrow morning."

I felt a tear run down my face. "But…"

She advanced towards me again, slowly, and brought her hand to my cheek. "It's okay. I won't let you see. I'll go off into the woods by myself, okay?"

"No!! No, you can't!" I felt sick, like I would hurl at any given moment. "You can't just leave me here!!"

She shook her head once more. "I'm sorry Toby. But I must. I can't do this anymore."

I cried hard that night. Cried for everyone I knew that died. My dad, my brother, and that kid down the street that I used to play with. I cried for the soon-to-be death of my own mother. The last thing I could cling to. But I knew she was as stubborn as a mule and wouldn't stop until she got what she wanted.

And if this is what she really wanted, then I'd have to accept it. I looked at a picture of our family before it all happened and took it in my hand.

"We were so perfect…" I sniffled. "Why did this happen… Why did they tear us apart before we could even react?"

I remembered the Death I saw earlier that day.

"Maybe… Maybe that tank has something inside of it that will tell me something… Maybe a central system or… something." I placed the picture back on the stand next to my bed. "Something that will make me understand this insanity."

Turning over in my bed, I looked out my window to the stars outside. "I need to _do_ something." I sighed.

"I need to make a difference."

I smiled. "Wouldn't it be amazing to kill them all…"

I drifted off to sleep, dreaming about a monster-free world that very well could be impossible.

 _ **That's it for this chapter! Hope ya'll enjoyed it! Anyways, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew, this is**_ _not_ _ **based off of any book or work of fiction, and the storyline and characters were made from me. So, please tell me if it's any good?**_ _ **Thank you so much,**_ _ **-Patrick Bailey**_


	3. Chapter Three

The sun woke me up, shining in my eyes. I yawned and fumbled around my nightstand to put on my glasses. Getting out of bed, I dressed myself in some clean clothes, and brushed my hair back. I frowned at my reflection in the mirror, remembering that today was the last day I would see my mother.

The last day I would hear her voice.

As I walked to the main room, my head started getting dizzy with thoughts from the past few weeks. Thoughts of how sad my mother was when my father left, and how that sadness doubled when Caleb turned to one of the Death.

"Toby?" My mother called from the kitchen. "I'm cooking some food for breakfast before I go."

I smiled. "Oh?" Walking over to the stove, I saw my favorite food on the top. "Spaghetti?"

She smiled, reminding me of every good moment we'd had in the past.

"I figured this might be a good last meal, for me anyways." Her smile vanished, and the bright happy moments were sucked right out of the kitchen window.

A darkness settled in around the two. I cleared my throat. "I thought I'd go investigate something I found inside one of the monsters yesterday…" I tried to change the conversation before either of us burst into tears.

"Oh." My mother smiled. "Don't get too close, they can still sting when they're dead."

"I know."

We sat there in the still of the morning, the sun shining through behind us. All too soon, the meal was cooked and eaten, and I found myself wishing I could make the time last longer.

Or stop.

"Well," Mom stood from the table.

"I'll leave the dishes to you then?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah."

I stood and hugged her, savoring the last moment we'd ever have together, knowing what would come next.

"So, I guess this is goodbye then…" She whispered into my ear.

"Yeah." I held her tighter. "I guess so."

I felt her grip on me loosen, and my mind panicked.

"No." I demanded. "Don't let go…" I started crying into her long brown hair. "Please… Don't die on me too…"

She chuckled slightly and forced herself from my grip. "I have to Toby, you know I won't stop until I get what I want."

I shook my head, crying and refusing to believe what was happening. "I don't understand…"

She sighed. "I thought I already explained it."

I nodded. "You did, just…" More tears. "I want to make sure I heard you right."

"I can't live always hiding in one place anymore. You know how much I love adventuring. This isn't the right life for me, and the best way to change that is just by leaving this life altogether."

"Okay," I frowned. "Just go." My face started getting red, I was angered at her, at the thought of her never being there.

At the thought that there wouldn't be anyone else to love me.

Or for me to love.

I saw her leave the house, trudging through the woods with a weapon slung over her shoulder. With the weapon that she would use to choose her own demise.

I shrugged all my tears away, along with my thoughts.

My afternoon was uneventful, I spent it in the garden, trying to pull all the weeds from the fertile ground.

It was one of the things we worked together to protect. After all, it was one of the only things we could eat in the winter. The animals had been drawn out by the creatures, it was the reason most people couldn't make it out here. Because there was hardly any meat to eat from.

Hardly anything at all.

It was mid-afternoon when I heard it.

 _ **-BANG!-**_

I jumped from my sitting position and dropped the gun I was cleaning to the floor. Her name was on my lips, yet no sound was heard. My ears were ringing, and I felt my head getting dizzy.

It was over.

Over.

My father, brother, and now my own mother were gone now.

I was all that was left of my family.

Everyone else was…

Gone.

I heard a similar sound hours after I heard the gunshot. Again, I jumped, but this time in shock and not in sadness or in fear. I was done being afraid, done being sad. Done being the person I had been not days ago.

Done being me.

I walked outside, shutting the kitchen door silently behind me, and aiming the gun I grasped in my hands in front of me at the metal canister.

It was open-just a little-and I could see inside of its dark interior. It had a soft, fluffy blanket that wrapped something in it, as if keeping it warm.

"Hello?" I couldn't think of anything else to call out, maybe there was something in there I could speak to. Maybe an animal, as long as it wasn't another creature I would be happy with anything.

To my surprise, a feminine voice called out. "Hello? Is someone out there?"

I jumped back a little in surprise. "Y-Yes, my name is Toby, Toby West?" I slowly crept forward, not sure if I should be scared or glad about this discovery.

"Hello!" An echo came from the sphere. "I'm Amber... I can't remember my last name... Can you help me get out of here?"

 _ **And that's all for this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it!**_ _ **Love ya'll!**_ _ **-Patrick Bailey**_


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